Japanese Film Festival Reveals 2025 Program

The Japanese Film Festival (JFF), presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney, marks its 29th year with a line-up of major new releases, literary adaptations, thrillers and anime features. Touring Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth from 27 October – 19 December, the festival continues to highlight the best of contemporary and classic Japanese cinema.

“We’re excited to bring a program that speaks to the breadth of Japanese cinema today,” said Manisay Oudomvilay, Festival Programmer. “From historical sagas to intimate family portraits, contemporary thrillers to beloved manga brought to life, these films capture both the richness of tradition and the restless innovation of Japanese filmmakers.”

Opening the festival is Kokuhо̄, Japan’s official submission for the 2026 Academy Awards. Directed by Lee Sang-il (Villain, Rage) and starring two of Japan’s biggest stars, Ryо̄ Yoshizawa and Ryūsei Yokohama, alongside veteran actor Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha) the film has broken all-time box office records for a live action film at home. The film follows five decades of friendship and rivalry between two boys who grow up inside the kabuki theatre tradition of western Japan. Based on the novel by Shūichi Yoshida, it traces their journey from adolescence in the 1960s through lives defined by loyalty, ambition and the pursuit of mastery in a highly competitive artform.

This year also sees the arrival of three new works from internationally acclaimed auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Chime, already hailed as one of 2024’s best horror films, traces the terrifying spread of a mysterious sound that alters behaviour with unpredictable consequences. Cloud, starring Masaki Suda, is a thriller about an online reseller caught in escalating threats both digital and real, and Serpent’s Path is a French-language remake of Kurosawa’s 1998 film of the same name. Together, these films reaffirm Kurosawa’s place as one of Japan’s most versatile and daring filmmakers.

Several films in the program are drawn from acclaimed literature and popular culture. 6 Lying University Students, adapted from Asakura Akinari’s 2021 bestseller, transforms a corporate recruitment test into a psychological thriller. Petals and Memories is based on Minato Shukawa’s Naoki Prize-winning short story collection Hana Manma, centring on a brother and sister navigating family obligations and hidden truths. 366 Days, inspired by the hit song by Okinawan band HY, follows two students whose relationship is tested as they move from their hometown to Tokyo to pursue careers in music and translation.

Stories of corruption, power and personal integrity feature strongly in this year’s line-up. Showtime 7 stars Hiroshi Abe as a disgraced news anchor thrust into negotiating with a terrorist during a live broadcast. Angry Squad: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers, adapted from the Korean drama Squad 38, follows a tax officer who joins forces with a con artist to target swindlers. Veteran director Kazuya Shiraishi (The Blood of Wolves) makes his first samurai drama with Bushido, where former pop star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi plays a rōnin forced to leave his clan’s domain after a false accusation, going on to live in poverty with his daughter.

This year also highlights the enduring influence of manga and anime on Japanese cinema. Cells at Work! brings the hit franchise to live action, portraying the human body as a world where cells battle illness and injury. The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store is an animated adaptation of Tsuchika Nishimura’s manga about a trainee concierge whose customers are all animals, including extinct species, in a surreal department store setting.

Sunset Sunrise reflects a more contemporary Japanese life and follows a young man from Tokyo who relocates during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Sanriku Coast, an area still marked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, where he finds a new way of life in a regional community.

The JFF Special Series returns with a retrospective of films from the 1930s, the defining decade of Japanese cinema. Showcasing masterpieces from pioneering directors including Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Sadao Yamanaka and more, the Special Series will be featured on the big screen at NFSA (Canberra), ACMI (Melbourne), QAGOMA (Brisbane), and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney). Also included in the series is a rare mini program of restored and digitised kami eiga (“paper films”) from pre-war Japan, screened alongside a live Japanese koto and cello performance by Duo YUMENO.

The full program is available now at www.japanesefilmfestival.net.

2025 Japanese Film Festival screening dates and venues:

  • CANBERRA: 27 October – 18 November

Palace Electric, National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA)

  • MELBOURNE: 6 November – 4 December

The Kino, ACMI

  • BRISBANE: 6 November – 19 December

Palace Barracks, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)

  • SYDNEY: 12 November – 1 December

Palace Norton Street, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central, Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW)

  • PERTH: 18 – 26 November

Palace Raine Square

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